My Company

By Kathryn Mayer

Twenty million people now have health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a new report. That includes an additional 12 million people who gained coverage through other provisions of the law along with the 8 million who enrolled in coverage through the exchanges since the spring.

A study from the Commonwealth Fund, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, detailed new enrollees in the law, as of May 1.

Six million people gained coverage through the law’s Medicaid expansion and extended funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Nearly 8 million young adults were able to get health insurance through their parents’ plans, the report said. Under the popular provision of the often controversial law, they are allowed to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26.

Commonwealth Fund authors also said that 5 million people who were ineligible for health insurance because of age or preexisting conditions are now covered because of PPACA.

The authors said they estimate that many of those who gained coverage under the law were previously uninsured, but were unable to give a figure. They did write that “young adults without insurance is estimated to have declined by between 1 million and 3 million since this provision took effect in 2010.”

Last month, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that nearly six in 10 enrollees on the exchanges under PPACA had been uninsured just prior to obtaining coverage.

In May, the administration touted the 8 million enrollees who signed up for coverage under — even after the tumultuous launch of HealthCare.gov, and its subsequent problems, in the fall.

Critics of the law have doubted some enrollment figures, citing many haven’t paid their first premiums, while others simply reenrolled in coverage after losing their existing plan because of requirements under PPACA.